The Legibility of Gardens
Grasses around the American Embassy in Nine Elms Of course, one could call it a cliché to say that men have always favoured the formal elements of a garden and that the women folk feel more comfortable creating beauty from the chaos of free-wheeling plants. Yes, you could say that, and in many respects you’d be right. Apart from the many famous examples of male/female partnerships which exemplify this (Lutyens & Jekyll, Vita & Harold, Lawrence Johnson and Nora Lindsey) I have also witnessed it countless times within the sphere of domestic gardening. It’s true to say that it’s virtually always the man of the house who concerns himself with the orderly nature of things: the stripy lawn, the re-pointing of paths, the walls, the hedges, the pleached limes etc. Indeed it’s very rare to find a man who would admit to finding any beauty whatsoever among the beds and borders, or the colours and combinations contained therein. In fact, whenever I try (as I often do) t...